Behind the scenes with Free Press reporter at large Sam Hemingway

Sanders: Transformative moment

﻿﻿﻿U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is battling a case of bronchitis this week, but when it comes to politics on the grassroots level in the country these days, he’s feeling pretty good.

“We are in a transformative moment in American politics,” Sanders told me in an interview Wednesday. “Something is happening at the grassroots level that I certainly have not seen in my political life.” He was sorting through his thoughts, he said, while writing a speech on all this that he plans to make on the Senate floor next week.

What Sanders senses is going on is a body politic that is moving away from divisive, single-issue fights and coming together around broad-based but deeply felt economic issues.

“What you’re seeing now is millions and millions of people beginning to look at politics not from a gender issue or a gay rights issue or abortion issue and all that, but from an economic perspective,” Sanders said. “I’m seeing it in polls and I’m certainly seeing it on the streets.”

He said the Occupy Wall Street movement, which he has strongly endorsed, is an example of what he’s talking about, but it’s more than that. Many conservative Tea Party backers, for example, have working class backgrounds and adamantly oppose cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

The state’s junior senator, who will be seeking re-election to a second six-year term next year, was particularly impressed by Bank of America abrupt decision Tuesday to drop plans to impose a $5 monthly fee on debit card users after angry customers threatened to close their accounts and move their money to credit unions and community banks.

“Do not minimize what this Bank of America thing is about,” Sanders said. “What the American people did, and they did it — it wasn’t Congress or anybody else — is they said to the largest financial institution in America ‘Excuse me, You’ve got to stop your greed. You caused the recession. We bailed you out and the reward for us bailing you out is hitting us with another outrageous fee.’”

Americans, he said, are profoundly upset that Wall Street and the wealthy are doing “just fine” while everybody else is going down the tubes economically. He pointed to a recent New York Times poll that found that two-thirds of the country wants the government to address the growing income and wealth inequality in America.

Sanders, as every Vermonter knows, has been beating the drum on the issue of income disparity in the United States since he got into electoral politics 40 years ago, but despite his electoral successes in Vermont, his views have failed to gain much traction in the halls of power in Washington D.C. despite his efforts.

He thinks that’s changing, too.

In March, he introduced a bill he called the Emergency Deficit Reduction Act. It called for a 5.4 percent surtax on people making more than $1 million a year and an elimination of tax breaks for major oil and gas companies.

The bill was offloaded to oblivion but last month, Sanders noted with pride, the surtax-on-the-wealthy idea was adopted by the Senate Democratic leadership as the funding mechanism for its jobs bill.

Thursday, the Senate voted 51-49 for the surtax provision. It wasn’t enough to overcome a threatened GOP filibuster, but it was a measure of progress nonetheless.

Will it someday make it into law?

The best bet is no, but that could change, Sanders said.

Just ask Bank of America.

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About Sam Hemingway

Sam Hemingway has worked as a reporter, editor and state columnist at the Free Press, winning a number of local and national awards for his work over the years. He grew up outside New Haven, Conn., majored in journalism at Syracuse University and helped found a weekly newspaper in Lamoille County before joining the Free Press in 1977.